Luca Vittorio Angelo Colombo

Strategic Location Choice under Dynamic Oligopolistic Competition and Spillovers

This paper investigates firms׳ optimal location choices explicitly accounting for the role of inwards and outwards knowledge spillovers in a dynamic Cournot oligopoly with firms that are heterogeneous in their ability to carry out cost-reducing R&D. Firms can either locate in an industrial cluster or in isolation. Technological spillovers are exchanged between the firms located in the cluster. It is shown that a technological leader has an incentive to locate in isolation only if her advantage exceeds a certain threshold, which is increasing in firms׳ discount rate, in industry dispersion, and in the intensity of knowledge spillovers. Scenarios are identified where although it is optimal for the technological leader to locate in isolation, from a welfare perspective it would be desirable that she locates in the cluster.

Complex business cycles and recurrent unemployment in a non-Walrasian macroeconomic model

Abstract In a dynamic non-tâtonnement macroeconomic model, trades take place in each period even when prices are not Walrasian. Prices are adjusted between trading periods according to the intensity of disequilibrium, a reliable measure of which is obtained by means of stochastic rationing. The degree of downward nominal wage stickiness as well as government policy parameters are decisive for the dynamics that emerge. In particular, it is possible for the economy to converge to quasi-stationary states involving permanent unemployment and decreasing nominal wages or to produce complex business cycles with structural features recurrent over time but varying and unpredictable shape and size.

Why do Acquiring Banks in Mergers Concentrate in Well-Developed Areas? Regional Development and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) in Banking

Colombo L. V. A. and Turati G. Why do acquiring banks in mergers concentrate in well-developed areas? Regional development and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in banking, Regional Studies. The paper focuses on all mergers and acquisitions (M&As) transactions of regional relevance that occurred in the Italian banking sector between 1995 and 2006. A strong direct effect of regional economic and social characteristics on the concentration of the banking industry in Italy is found, as well as on the agglomeration of acquiring banks in well-developed regions. This effect survives to a number of robustness checks, including controls for banks’ profitability and efficiency, and for their institutional characteristics, indicated by the banking literature as the key factors driving concentration in banking. Possible theoretical explanations supporting the empirical findings are also investigated, and their policy implications are discussed.

Tax differentiation, lobbying, and welfare

To what extent a taxing authority should be granted the power to impose different tax schedules to different groups of taxpayers? Although the policy maker aims at maximizing social welfare, her tax policy may be distorted by the lobbying activity of taxpayers. In this political environment we characterize the conditions under which social welfare can be increased by restricting the set of tax instruments available to the policy maker; i.e., the scope of tax differentiation. We show that full differentiation is more costly, in terms of welfare distortions, when the lobbies are asymmetric in size, while minimal differentiation is more costly when the tax bases are asymmetric across different groups.

Does Easy Start-Up Formation Hamper Incumbents' R&D Investment? A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates, both theoretically and empirically, the implications that complementary assets needed for the formation of start-ups – proxied by the ease of access to financial resources – have on the innovative efforts of incumbent firms. In particular, we develop a theoretical model, highlighting a strategic incentive effect by which the innovative efforts of incumbent firms are decreasing in the availability of the complementary assets needed for the creation of a start- up. The empirical relevance of this effect is investigated by using firm level data drawn from the third Italian Community Innovation Survey covering the period 1998-2000. The results of our empirical analysis support our theory-based insights.

Deflationary Recessions in a General Equilibrium Framework

This paper investigates the role of fiscal and monetary shocks in the occurrence of deflationary recessions. Our model is based on a temporary equilibrium approach with stochastic rationing, where inventory dynamics is explicitly taken into account, amplifying spillover effects between markets. This setting allows us to study the driving forces behind disequilibrium phenomena, and to investigate the efficacy of alternative policies in overcoming them. In particular, we provide for an application of our approach to the study of the Japanese deflationary recession.

A Dynamic Model of Firms’ Strategic Location Choice

This paper analyzes the optimal location choice of a firm in a dynamic Cournot framework, in which firms’ absorptive capacities may depend on their knowledge stock. The firm decides whether to locate irreversibly in a cluster or in isolation. In the cluster the firm benefits from inward spillovers from its competitors, but also generates outward spillovers. If the firm chooses to locate in isolation no knowledge flows occur. All firms’ production costs are determined by their knowledge stocks, which evolve over time due to own R&D investments and potentially inward spillovers. It is shown that, if absorptive capacity is constant, the incentive to locate in the cluster decreases with respect to the firm’s knowledge stock. Conversely, if absorptive capacity depends positively on knowledge stock, the firm’s incentive to join the cluster is larger the more knowledge it has. It is also shown that qualitative properties of the equilibrium paths of R&D investments and knowledge stocks differ substantially depending on whether absorptive capacities are constant or knowledge dependent.

Expectations and Policies in Deflationary Recessions

In this paper, we use a non†tA¢tonnement dynamic macroeconomic model to study the role of inventories, expectations and wages in the business cycle. Following a restrictive monetary shock, by amplifying spillover effects inventories may imply that the economy converges to a deflationary locally stable Keynesian underemployment state. The model is applied to evaluate economic policies like quantitative easing as well as the effectiveness of holding inflationary expectations to recover to full employment. If inflationary expectations are not sufficient, imposing downward rigidity of nominal wages helps to exit from the recession.

On the Anatomy of Financial Literacy in Italy: Financial Literacy in Italy

Using survey data on a sample of the Italian population, in this paper we offer a comprehensive account of which personal characteristics are associated to adequate financial competence and wise financial behaviour. The study uses five indicators of individual financial competence and behaviour and provides evidence on how each indicator is connected to individual characteristics such as gender, age, marital status, labour market status, income and education. Two indicators measure competence and awareness of the financial environment, while the remaining three capture specific elements of financial behaviour such as attitude towards budget constraints, propensity to save and planning for retirement. As expected, the pattern of correlations is rather homogeneous across the five indicators. In particular, we find that being a woman or being less educated is associated to less familiarity with the financial environment.

Seasoned equity offering announcements and the returns on European bank stocks and bonds

ABSTRACT We analyse, by means of appropriate event studies, the returns following seasoned equity offering announcements made by western European banks between 2008 and 2014. Consistently with the pertinent literature on non-financial companies, we find that shareholders experience negative returns. We highlight that the same occurs for bondholders, although not surprisingly to a smaller extent. Overall, our results show that seasoned equity offering announcements play an important signalling role also in the banking industry, despite the tight regulation and supervision by banking authorities, which should in principle reduce the impact on pricing of the information asymmetries about banks’ financial conditions.